You guys, I went to Austria.

And it was amazing.

Around a year ago I promised myself that I would do a few certain things, just for me. Things that would enable me to discover deeper parts of myself. Things that would help me in my search for self-knowledge and self-love.

One of these things was to travel. To get out and explore, to broaden and enrich my knowledge of the world outside of my everyday routine, and to learn more about other places and other cultures. To make my world bigger, to gain a new perspective, and most of all to get outside of myself.

The only thing standing in my way was money and coming up with a way to save up enough to get around to traveling before even more time slipped away from me. How would I manage it? Even with my best brainstorming and budgeting, I couldn’t see a way.

Little did I know that the universe was already on my side, working hard to bring my wishes to fruition in a way that I could have never anticipated. Within a year I would be traveling to Vienna, Austria on my first international business trip.

So, in the few weeks remaining in my twenty-seventh year, I boarded a plane to Zurich and then on to Vienna.

It was magical. The whole time, I couldn’t stop saying the word lovely. This building is lovely. This hotel is lovely. The warm weather is so lovely. This garden is lovely. Oh, that church is lovely! This potato salad is lovely. The people are lovely! I was lacking enough adjectives to describe this wonderful new place I was in and how blessed I felt.

But really, truly, it all was just lovely.

I strolled the streets of the city center in the evenings, drinking in the sights and smells and new words and cuisine and the sheer uniqueness of this place I was experiencing for the first time. It felt unreal. Was I really here? Had my career just brought me to this beautiful moment I was having? I almost couldn’t believe it.

The work hours were long and imperfect, but the good moments far outweighed any stress I experienced. I was able to disconnect from my day-to-day life in order to fully appreciate a new place and have a few truly authentic moments with me and only me. When I wasn’t  working and hooked into WiFi at the convention center, my cell phone was merely a device to take pictures with. For my personal time during my trip, I was detached from everything that is my life in San Diego.

It was the best early birthday present that I could have been given.

Today is my twenty-eighth birthday. Twenty-seven was my best year yet, both personally and professionally, and I cannot wait to see what new adventures, lessons, and experiences this next year has in store for me.

*Below are some of my pictures, but I have a few posts in the works to tell you about the sights in greater detail! Stay tuned.

xoxo

Sarah